The present invention relates to a resilient block for attaching the upper end of a front suspension shock absorber to the body of a vehicle, in particular of the type which allows steering of the vehicle wheels without causing stresses to the suspension spring thereof.
It is known that in order to connect the shock absorber of a steering wheel of a motor vehicle to the motor vehicle body particular resilient blocks are used comprising a rolling element bearing fitted to the interior of a resiliently deformable bush constituted by two sleeves or rigid support elements, respectively an inner element and an outer element, joined together by a deformable intermediate sleeve made of elastomeric material vulcanised and adhered onto the facing surfaces of the inner and outer sleeve; the rolling element bearing can be fitted with its inner ring on the stem of the shock absorber and with its outer ring on the inner rigid sleeve of the deformable bush, which outer sleeve is then fixed to the vehicle body by means of bolts.
A resilient support of the type described above is not entirely free from disadvantages; in particular the presence of two separate units (resilient bush and bearing) usually made by two separate manufacturers and then assembled by a third agency (for example the utilising concern) creates problems of assembly and increases the assembly time; moreover because of different working tolerances play and/or assembly imperfections between the bearing and the resilient bush can occur. For the purpose of overcoming these disadvantages resilient blocks have been proposed in which the inner rigid sleeve is eliminated and the elastomeric sleeve is directly vulcanised onto the outer surface of the outer ring of the bearing, in such a way as to create a single unit which is made and sold directly by the bearing producer; this second solution however, has the disadvantage of requiring the utilisation of special bearings having an outer ring of particular form and of a length greater than that of the inner ring in order to provide sufficient anchorage for the elastomeric sleeve; moreover, because of the limitations on the form imposed by the dual function which the outer ring of the bearing must perform, this latter ends up being shaped in such a way as to transmit predominantly shear stresses to the elastomeric sleeve with a reduction in the efficiency of the elastomeric sleeve itself.